April 30, 2014 AT 5:00 am

Suit Jacket that Swipes Payments — Priceless #WearableWednesday

Soon men won’t have to worry about wallet bulge. They’ll be using their suits to swipe payments at their favorite store with a flick of the wrist, according to International Business Times. The MJ Bale Power Suit takes advantage of Visa’s payWave system, which is Near Field Communications (NFC). NFC has become a big deal, and we’ve already seen rings that use this form of technology. Here’s what’s going on.

The same NFC chip and transmitter found in NFC-enabled smartphones has been built into the sleeve of the suit jacket near the wrist, so paying for something becomes as easy as tapping your wrist on the reader at the point-of-sale (POS) payment terminal in a shop.

Here’s a humorous video introducing the suit — love the idea of the celebs that you never see buying things. We aren’t so sure it’s the suit, as much as it is having personal shoppers. Maybe they need to invent the personal shopper’s edition, which will be made of a wool/poly mix.

All humor aside, one of the interesting things about this suit is that it brings up the debate over two communication systems — NFC and Beacon. Right now companies are testing to see which one is most acceptable by consumers. NFC must be done at close proximity, while Beacon can be used through a phone from a distance. It seems like a suit is good for NFC, but we just aren’t sure what happens when it goes to the cleaners. Maybe it’s time to learn more by reading our tutorial on RFID/NFC using a PN532 Shield.